Assault on Sicily: Monty and Patton at War
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Ford, Ken, PUBLISHER: Sutton Publishing, On ong>theong> night of 9/10 July , an Allied armada of vessels launched one of ong>theong> largest combined operations of ong>theong> Second World War - ong>theong> invasion of Sicily, Operation 'Husky'. Over ong>theong> next 38 days, half a million British, Canadian, American and French soldiers, sailors, and airmen grappled with ong>theong>ir German and Italian counterparts for control of this rocky outcrop of Hitler's 'Fortress Europe'. ong>Theong> Allied assault on Sicily featured airborne and amphibious landings; mountain warfare; international rivalry; poorly performing troops; tenacious German resistance; and, improvements in tactical air support and ong>theong> ultimate Allied victory on ong>theong> island. Almost ong>theong> whole of ong>theong> progress of ong>theong> Second World War is illustrated by this one campaign. It was ong>theong> only action where ong>theong> whole Allied war effort was brought to bear on a single objective, with one army commanded by Patton and one army commanded by Montgomery. Both men were insufferable egoists and insubordinate commanders; ong>theong>y always chose to do ong>theong>ir own thing, regardless of oong>theong>rs' sensibilities and always with one eye on how history would see ong>theong>m. ong>Theong> seeds of rivalry between ong>theong>se two key Allied commanders that were sown in ong>theong> Sicily campaign eventually grew to fruition in ong>theong> battles for Normandy and ong>theong> Ardennes.